What3words

[Sack the Juggler]

Last week my mate was cycling to skipton from the wirral with his missus, he'd done about 120km when he had a crash and went into a dry stone wall and broke his upper arm quite badly. They were in the middle of nowhere, but they were able to give the emergency services an exact location with what3words, and the ambulance was able to find them quickly and help with the pain. I'd never heard of it until then, now I have it.

[Essan]

As a personal safety device I think this W3W app thingy is bloomin great.

OK, so the tech community are slating it; it's a proprietary system blah, blah, blah. Why shouldn't the developers make money from it?? I don't see the problem.

It's free at point of use. I'm pretty sure there'll be a growing number of stories in the meejah about people who'll have been rescued, and even have had their lives saved from using this app.

In fact as soon as I read about it on here I got my two kids to download it onto their smartphones. We sat down together and I talked them through how to use it and the circumstances where it might come in handy.

It's a free app that could save yer wean's life.

Problem?

It's no different to OS Locate. Except OS Locate can enable you to find yourself And MRTs much prefer a grid reference. OS Locate saves them the hassle of working out what the grid reference for desk yellow cloud is.

[jamiecopeland]

I can’t see why anyone would opt for this App over the OS Locate app. OS Locate gives you an accurate six figure grid reference without an internet signal.

With this information you can text your grid reference location to 999 (again, no internet or phone signal required to text 999).

https://www.ngts.org.uk/how-to-use-ngt/contact-999-using-ngt.html

[Sack the Juggler]

I can’t see why anyone would opt for this App over the OS Locate app. OS Locate gives you an accurate six figure grid reference without an internet signal.

With this information you can text your grid reference location to 999 (again, no internet or phone signal required to text 999).

https://www.ngts.org.uk/how-to-use-ngt/contact-999-using-ngt.html

are you sure about that bit?

[Marty_JG]

I can’t see why anyone would opt for this App over the OS Locate app.

I think everyone here knows what "OS Grid Reference" means but it's not universal.

Also, how many digits of Northings and Eastings are required to get to a three metre precision?

[Sack the Juggler]

I can’t see why anyone would opt for this App over the OS Locate app.

I think everyone here knows what "OS Grid Reference" means but it's not universal.

Also, how many digits of Northings and Eastings are required to get to a three metre precision?

the OS locate is good, but its within a 100m square, what three words is a bit more precise (depending on the GPS signal I guess)

[Scraggygoat]

Precision…..........or accuracy?

Most mobile phone chips can't resolve gps signals to a 3m accuracy even in ideal conditions, irrespective of whether the algorithm used reports to a 10 figure precision (1m). The OS locate app does not provide 8 or 10 figure grid references because the OS didn't believe at the time of app development that mobile phone gps chips could provide an accuracy commensurate with a 8 figure (10m) precision. See thier FAQ page. I don't know if they have changed thier position

While no doubt technology has moved on since the app was developed, professional surveyors I know regard modern mobile phone gps chips/software to currently provide an accuracy or error of commonly +/- 5 to 30m, again in ideal conditions. So while W3W gives you a 3m location......in reality you are probably actually in an entirely different but nearby W3W location!

[Marty_JG]

Phones variably considerably on GPS accuracy.

notebookcheck.net though mainly a laptop site (duh) also review smartphones and they have a strong history of testing the GPS out, indoors and out, noting the precision, and doing walking and cycling runs alongside a Garmin unit (usually an Edge 500) to test the unit's precision.

If you're thinking of getting a phone for hiking & biking it's a site worth checking out. Example reviews:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Ulefone-Armor-X-Smartphone-Review.309168.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Ulefone-Armor-6-Smartphone-Review.402041.0.htm

[Giant Stoneater]

The person who is/was updating the Wainrights carried 3 GPS's as there was always one that did not give the correct information.